


Scientist AU

by kafrickinboom



Series: Voltron WLW Month [29]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Scientists, Angst with a Happy Ending, Chemistry, Demisexual Pidge | Katie Holt, F/F, Genderbending, Light Angst, Love Confessions, More like Crush Confessions but whatever, Pansexual Hunk (Voltron), Pining, Truth Serum, VLD WLW Month, Voltron WLW Month, Voltron is Still a Thing Though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-29
Updated: 2017-08-29
Packaged: 2018-12-21 07:45:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11939541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kafrickinboom/pseuds/kafrickinboom
Summary: The gas effect is actually a scientific win, really. She now knows they can usethatagainst the Galra too, butdamn it.Did she really have to be the one to blurt out one of her biggest secrets?





	Scientist AU

**Author's Note:**

> *throws fic like confetti*

“I’d just like to reiterate that I  _ really _ don’t think this is a good idea anymore,” Hunk says for what feels like the millionth time in the last few hours, and Pidge sighs, throwing a quelling glare at her. Hunk raises her hands in defeat, her eyes wide with apprehension and fear as she watches Pidge add the last few components to the serum.

“I understand your anxiety disorder, but I really do need you to calm down. We’ve gone over the math  _ extensively, _ as per your request, and nothing should go wrong. Plus, you know how much this could help us if this works out,” Pidge says, and Hunk grumbles.

“I know, but ‘nothing  _ should _ go wrong’ and ‘nothing  _ will _ go wrong’ are two vastly different statements,” Hunk frowns, crossing her large, muscular arms, and Pidge only spares a second’s thought to how nicely those would fit around her before shaking it off. 

“Hunk, I swear to God. You’re as much a scientist as I am. You  _ know _ that very close to  _ nothing _ has a 100% guarantee that everything will go according to plan.” Pidge raises a mocking brow, but keeps her eyes focused on the serum at hand. She doesn’t want to fuck it all up because of her ease of distraction whenever her colleague is around.

They both hold their breaths as Pidge drops one, two, three drops of what is essentially the alien version of aloe vera gel (which has other surprising scientific properties not unlike scopolamine [AKA the first “truth serum”] back on Earth) into the phial. She then immediately places it in the centrifuge, setting the timer for thirty-five minutes. Then that’s done, she spins around, clapping her hands together with a wide smile.

“See? That wasn’t so bad,” and Hunk throws her an unimpressed look before spilling out another anxiety-induced series of ‘what ifs.’

“Okay, but what if the chemicals react in a way we didn’t anticipate? What if it literally explodes when the compound hits oxygen? What if-”

“Hunk!” Pidge interrupts, and the woman in question stops short, her wide, brown eyes meeting Pidge’s for a moment before darting away as she swallows thickly.

“Sorry. You know how I am. I  _ love _ new discoveries, but I also can’t help but think of everything that could go wrong,” Hunk grimaces, and Pidge huffs fondly.

“I  _ do _ know how you are, you dork. That’s why I’m here to help pull your head out of your ass. You’re one of the best mathematicians I’ve ever met, and we’re both pretty awesome at figuring out and balancing chemical compounds so it  _ doesn’t _ explode...unless we want it to,” she adds with a wink, and Hunk’s lips twitch up at the corners. “Come on. Let’s go eat while we wait for this baby to cook.”

And like that, Hunk’s smiling again. “I’ve been toying with a new sauce idea. Wanna try it with me?”

Pidge just smiles back with a “hell yeah.”

\---

She honestly couldn’t tell you exactly when she fell for Dr. Gagailoa (AKA Hunk), but Pidge thinks it was sometime within their Garrison days.

Hunk had been a breath of fresh air, a genuinely kind soul amongst the assholes who would do just about anything short of actual physical harm to one-up their competition. She was never the type to look down her nose at Pidge just because she was a few years younger than everyone else in the program, and she was never the type to feel like she was too good to ask for help. She was (and still is) one of the most intelligent people Pidge knows, and though her anxiety can be a bit too much at times, it’s served to make her more cautious and careful in her work. 

Pidge is fairly sure she fell in love during one of their many study dates, between stoichiometry and differential calculus, between pencil strokes and sips of coffee, between soft smiles and bright eyes. 

Honestly, the fact that Hunk is unfathomably beautiful just made it that much easier for Pidge to swoon. Not that a person’s aesthetic actually determines Pidge’s feelings for someone, but she also couldn’t deny that Hunk’s smooth, cinnamon skin, thick, mile-long legs, curvaceous figure and long, wavy hair made it effortless for Pidge to stare at her far past what was considered acceptable. The fact that her face was also gorgeous didn’t help either. Hunk has the softest, kindest features Pidge has ever seen in her life- the kind of face that immediately makes people want to trust her, sets people at ease with a gentle smile and easy to approach. 

Her warm, dark eyes vaguely remind Pidge of a puppy, and Hunk was quick to use them on Pidge when she wanted something but thought Pidge wouldn’t give it to her (she doesn’t need to know that all Pidge needs is for her to ask and she’d give her the world if she could). Her button nose gave her an even more innocent appearance than her personality does, and the freckles dotting along the bridge only amplifies the effect. Her full, curving lips are almost perpetually set to a smile (unless she’s feeling anxious or, you know...abject terror), slick with some sort of balm, and Pidge has often wondered just what they’d feel against her tongue.

She snaps out of that line of thinking when Hunk waves a hand in front of her face with a little “Earth to Pidge” dislodging the train of thought, and Pidge can feel the heat suffusing up to her ears when she realizes she’s been caught staring. She curses her pale skin and hair just too short to hide it. She shakes her head, apologizing with a claim (re: a white lie) that she was just thinking about their experiment spinning away in the lab. Hunk’s lips purse, her eyes bright with amusement, and Pidge doesn’t exactly know how to read that, so she forcefully shrugs it off.

She and Hunk eat their “burger” (Pidge doesn’t want to know what kind of alien animal this meat came from, but it  _ is _ delicious) with Hunk’s new special sauce and  _ damn, _ is it good. Pidge would like to marry this sauce. Wait- no. Then she’d end up killing her sauce spouse  _ (spauce?) _ because it’s too good  _ not _ to eat. Maybe she should just marry the chef…

...which is Hunk.  _ Ugh, _ here comes the blush again.

“Everything okay?” Hunk asks, and when Pidge meets her eyes, they’re filled with concern. At Pidge’s confusedly furrowing brows, Hunk gestures to her face. “You’re looking a little red there. I didn’t think I added  _ that _ much spice.”

“Hey now,” Pidge says, pointing a playfully accusatory finger at Hunk. “I can handle the spice. I’m fine.” 

Hunk raises a disbelieving brow in response to that, but thankfully doesn’t press for more. They sit there in a comfortable silence only broken up by gossip about the other Voltron team members’ love lives- Lance and Keith’s new relationship, Shiro’s pining eyes following them everywhere they go, Allura’s pining eyes at  _ him, _ and Coran’s slow descent into monkhood. They laugh over the more embarrassing moments like Shiro immediately responding when Lance called out for his “babe” and Lance’s and Keith’s resulting twin gobsmacked flushes, and Coran’s inability to be subtle about anything ever as he nudged them both with his waggly brows, and Allura’s dropped jaw as she stared at Shiro (though...that was a bit sad considering how unrequited her crush really is). 

Pidge and Hunk talk about their work, and projects for the future, and the endless possibilities to discover more out here in this new corner of the universe until the timer on Pidge’s data pad goes off, and she bolts to the lab with Hunk following a bit more apprehensively.

When they get there, Pidge quickly washes her hands at the lab’s sink, throwing on her work apron, a pair of gloves and safety goggles. She checks to make sure Hunk is doing the same, the other woman going so far as to put on a face mask. Pidge could smack herself for forgetting that one, graciously taking it with thanks before putting it on.

“You ready?” Pidge asks excitedly, and Hunk nods from her place by the wall, about ten feet away from her. Pidge rolls her eyes fondly as she opens the centrifuge-

Only to be met with a puff of gas. She coughs through it, waving it away. Thank God she put on that mask before handling anything. She grabs a test tube holder, prying it out of the centrifuge, sighing in relief when she realizes that it isn’t broken. None of the compound has actually escaped the tube itself. The gas it gave off from mixing must have just pressurized in the centrifuge until Pidge released it. 

Sighing, she turns around to beam at Hunk behind her mask, “how do you manage to look so hot even when you’re scared?” And as soon as the words are out, her eyes fly wider than she thinks they’ve ever been, almost dropping the tube in her hand. Hunk’s eyes are almost as wide as hers as she remains frozen against the wall.

“W-what was that?” Hunk asks as Pidge puts the test tube on the rack, swallowing thickly.

She opens her mouth to just shrug it off, but what comes out of her mouth is, “you can’t tell me you don’t know how you look.” 

Jesus  _ Christ, _ what is with her? She clenches her eyes shut, shaking her head as if to clear her mind, but...her mind is fine. She knows exactly what she’s thinking, and what she actually  _ wants _ to say, but those are two different things, and her body seems to be taking the option of what she wants out of her hands. 

“I’m sorry, but what the hell?” Hunk looks at Pidge like she’s grown a second head, and she really doesn’t blame her. 

“I don’t know what’s going on with me, but you really shouldn’t be so surprised. I’ve thought of you like that since the day I met you,” and Pidge has to slap a hand over her mouth...which is still donning the face mask. The face mask that  _ must have failed. _ “Oh  _ fuck,” _ she whines, looking at the test tube innocently sitting in its fucking rack like it isn’t ruining Pidge’s life.

“I, uh…  _ Oh,” _ Hunk says, realization coloring her voice as she follows the line of Pidge’s glare. “So, that scopolamine effect is much stronger than we anticipated, huh?” She nervously chuckles, and Pidge briefly wonders if Hunk would agree to punching her hard enough to make her pass out so they can pretend this never happened.

She rips the mask off her face, scowling. “Yeah, apparently. You weren’t supposed to find out about my embarrassingly massive crush  _ ever, _ but thanks to that gas cloud, here we are,” she laments as she throws her hands up. 

When she notices Hunk’s shock, she runs through what she said again, blanching. “I-I’m...gonna go now before I say anything else,” she says, paying no mind to the warbling in her voice as she backs up, her eyes darting away from Hunk’s as she quickly takes off all of her lab attire, and bolting to her room to wait out the honesty hour.

She ignores Hunk’s voice as she calls for Pidge to come back.

\---

If there’s one thing you should know about Pidge Gunderson (or Katie Holt-  _ whatever), _ it’s that when she’s mortified and/or hurt, she hermits away from the world. She’s gotten really good at it too.

Sometimes when she’s in one of her “moods” (fuck off, Lance), one of the others will try coming to find her in all of the places they’d expect her to be- her room, the chem lab, the tech lab, with Green, sometimes even checking the bathroom. They’ve only looked beyond the commonly used areas of the castle-ship a couple of times, and she’s overheard the deep sighs, the “she’s not going to be out here” and the decrescendo of footfalls as they leave her hiding place.

So here she is, three days later, completely safe from the rest of the world in an old botany lab Pidge has been thinking of asking Allura and Coran if she can reopen. She tends to some of the ancient plants that have somehow survived 10,000 years of a complete lack of care, picking off the hopelessly dying shoots. 

It’s cathartic being able to do something so simple, so menial while she thinks over everything running through her mind. She knows she’s probably over-thinking a lot of things. She tends to accidentally twist things in her mind when she’s feeling down on herself, like...she’s pretty sure she’s imagining the disgust in Hunk’s eyes, and she’s positive that Hunk didn’t laugh at her when she blabbed too much. She  _ knows _ that Hunk is probably just worried and that even though she undoubtedly does  _ not _ return Pidge’s crush, she would still want to be here for Pidge, but...she can’t. 

Pidge just can’t do it. She can’t pretend she’s fine. Hilarious, she knows, considering how great of an actress she was pretending to be someone she’s not at the Garrison, and even a while into her Voltron days, but...that was different. She had solutions at hand on how to proceed with what she was doing, what she was feeling. She had clear steps to take in order to find her brother and father, and she had Shiro to talk through her feelings because considering Matt was-  _ is _ his best friend and her dad became something of a second father to Shiro he felt a lot of what she felt too. 

This, though. This is a whole other ballgame, a whole other level of feeling and a level of humiliation that never came with hurting over her family. This is her heart yearning for someone who would never want her, and while she logically knew that before, Hunk’s shocked silence confirming it grated on her emotions in a way she’d never anticipated.

She sighs as she waters the plants, running her other finger over the spines. She’s never had feelings for someone like this before.  _ Demisexual, _ the term slips through her mind, and she smiles wearily at the label. It’s nice to have a word that explains her romantic feelings, but  _ God, _ does it make things hard. For the longest time, she’d accepted that she was straight up aro-ace. That was perfectly fine with her back when she had a one-track focus on finding her family. Everything,  _ everything _ else came second to finding even a shred of information.

And then Voltron happened, and then she was making leaps and bounds of progress in comparison to the year previous, and she then suddenly had a lot more time to relax, to spread her focus to encapsulate her friends on a more personal level. And sure, she’d thought Hunk was basically aesthetically perfect from the day they met, but it wasn’t until she actually let herself be honest and get closer to the other woman that she started to feel things she had no name for. 

All of a sudden, she’d find her heart racing whenever Hunk was in close proximity to her, her hands growing sweaty when their skin brushed together, the helpless smiles bordering on hysteria when Hunk so much as smirked at her, her mouth growing dry each time she watched Hunk lick her fingers clean, bolts of electric heat rushing through her at the pseudo-sexual moaning when she ate, at the fluttering eyes and blissful smile that came with a particularly delicious food. If Pidge someday develops a food kink, she’s going to 100% blame Hunk for it entirely.

Anyway, the point is that all of these confusing feelings that she’d never felt started popping up, and as much as it was bewildering at first, she’s a scientist. She understands norepinephrine, dopamine and phenylethylamine. She understands, on a logical and physical level, why her body was responding the way it did, but she didn’t truly understand the  _ why _ of why it was happening now and never before until one night when she was hanging out with the rest of the team.

She’s still not sure why they even broached the topic- probably some  _ bonding exercise _ or something- but they played this game where someone would ask a question and then everyone would go around the circle answering it. Pidge’s was something simple-  _ where were you born? _ Interestingly, she found they were all born in different countries. 

That’s not the point though. When it got to Lance, he asked about everyone’s romantic and sexual identities. Pidge could practically feel the question marks forming in her head. She had no clue. She’s thankful she ended up being last because when it got to Keith, he explained that he’s demiromantic, further explaining that he doesn’t develop romantic feelings for anyone until he forms a close bond with that person when Pidge asked. 

And abruptly, things slotted into place. It felt  _ right _ to label herself as demi-demi (mirroring Hunk’s cheeky  _ “panpan”). _ It made sense to her that she needed to form a strong bond with someone in order to feel any kind of romantic or sexual feelings for them. Of  _ course _ she wouldn’t have felt anything like this before considering she’d never really formed bonds this strong with anyone in her life. 

Her feelings were like a dawning horizon that she couldn’t stop. She’d seen a bit of its blinding brightness, had felt a bit of its heat, but as soon as she acknowledged it, it rose higher, more sizzling, more brilliant, more  _ beautiful _ than she’d expected. 

Well, it would be beautiful if her feelings were reciprocated, but they weren’t, so she pulled reined herself in around Hunk, keeping them at a nice, friendly distance. They worked well as a team, especially in the lab, and sometimes Pidge could forget about the longing she felt when they were apart as they danced around each other in the practiced way they do. 

She was good. She was  _ fine. _ She was...dealing with it. And then the mask hadn’t been good enough to keep the unpredicted gas puff from affecting her, and now she’s very much  _ not _ good,  _ not _ fine, and she doesn’t know how to deal with it anymore. It was one thing when it was just her handling it. It was a whole other thing letting the woman she lo-  _ cared for _ unwillingly take some of the burden from her. Pidge didn’t  _ want _ Hunk to take the burden. She wanted to just calmly, quietly pine from afar until Hunk was happy and then she could deal with her broken heart accordingly. Ugh.

She crosses her arms on the table in front of her, resting her head on them as she takes a few deep, steadying breaths. It doesn’t help that this fucking effect hasn’t worn off yet. She  _ knows _ the plant they used is potent. That’s why they used it. They were trying to create a serum that, when injected or swallowed by the enemy, they could question them about Galra plans and strategy, could ask about Shiro’s time with them, could ask about Pidge’s family. They just wanted to come up with a way to have a leg up on these assholes who have recently begun to be multiple steps ahead of them. 

The gas effect is actually a scientific win, really. She now knows they can use  _ that _ against the Galra too, but  _ damn it. _ Did  _ she _ really have to be the one to blurt out one of her biggest secrets?  _ And _ still not be able to face anyone unless she wants to spill more? Ridiculous.

She sighs so loudly, so emotionally worn out, that she doesn’t hear the door hiss open, only whirling around when heavy footsteps enter the room. 

She really should have brought her modified cloaking device or something. Maybe it would have saved her in a pinch or something. She’d really like to run away right now because of  _ course _ it’s Hunk walking toward her, her expression painted with a hesitant smile as she give Pidge a tiny wave. Pidge slumps, helpless against the corners of her mouth pulling up of their own volition, waving back. 

“Hey,” Hunk says quietly, but it sounds like a shout in the silence. “I haven’t seen you in a few days, and just...wanted to see if you were okay.”

“How did you find me here?” Pidge asks instead of giving an answer. She’s pretty sure actual sentences will result in more bullshit she doesn’t want Hunk knowing tumbling from her mouth.

“I actually found you the last time you were in here,” Hunk shrugs, biting her lip when Pidge’s brows furrow. “I know you hid in that corner over there,” she points to the darkest part of the room, “but I knew you needed space, so I told the guys that I couldn’t find you either.”

“...Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Would you have come back here if I did?” Hunk asks, and when Pidge purses her lips, she hops up on an empty section of counter space. “Yeah, I didn’t think so.”

The sudden silence is tinged with an awkwardness Pidge hasn’t felt around Hunk since coming clean about her identity, and she  _ hates _ it. She swallows thickly, toying with the ends of her sleeves before clearing her throat.

“H-how have you been?” Pidge asks, focusing her gaze on Hunk’s left shoulder, but of course Hunk doesn’t let her get away with that, dipping her head down and to the side in an attempt to catch her eyes, sighing when Pidge’s eyes dart to a safer place on the other side of the room.

“I’ve been really,  _ really _ good, actually,” Hunk says, and Pidge can hear the smile in her voice. 

“I’m glad,” Pidge sighs. “How’s the truth serum?”

“Stable. Haven’t had any other issues with it since.” Hunk nods, tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear, and Pidge’s fingers itch to feel its softness between them. “Has your whole,” she waves a hand in front of her face,  _ “thing _ gone away yet?”

“Nope!” Pidge responds with false cheer. “It’s just too potent. I did the math, and I  _ think _ it’ll be gone within the next day and a half, but...well, we didn’t see the gas coming, so who knows what else I got wrong-”

_ “We _ got wrong, you mean,” Hunk raises a brow at her, and she rolls her eyes.

“Yes, fine.  _ We _ got wrong.” Pidge leans back against the counter cater-corner to Hunk, wiping her hands down her face wearily. “I’m so sorry, Hunk.”

A confused noise sounds from her left and she lets her hands drop, looking at her friend incredulously. “You know what I’m talking about.” When Hunk looks at her innocently, she narrows her eyes, and then Hunk snaps her fingers, exaggerating a lightbulb moment.

“Oh yeah! You mean the whole ‘finally admitting you have a crush on me’ thing.” She beams, and Pidge just wants to melt-  _ wait. _

“What the hell do you mean ‘finally?’” 

“Pi-  _ Katie.” _ Hunk says, eyeing her flatly, and Pidge’s face lights up like a firework, an explosion of color rushing to her cheeks (no one  _ ever _ calls her Katie. Even Shiro doesn’t anymore). 

“You...knew?” Pidge winces, her eyes clenching shut as her face morphs into a grimace. She turns her face away, hiding back in the safe space behind her hands, curling in on herself. “Fucking hell, this is embarrassing.”

A pair of big, warm hands wrap around her wrists, startling her as they tug them away. When Pidge refuses to relax, Hunk huffs fondly. 

_ “Katie,” _ Hunk breathes, and Pidge’s eyes fly open of their own volition, widening at the pure affection in Hunk’s expression. “If we,” she clears her throat nervously, “if we’d traded places that day, if  _ I _ had gotten the face full of gas, I probably would have said the exact same thing.”

Pidge gasps, trying not to let the hope rise at the implication of Hunk’s words. Lowly, she asks, “what, exactly, are you saying?”

Hunk tsks, shaking her head hard enough that her hair comes loose from her ears, obscuring her flushed cheeks. “I thought you were the smartest scientist in our class, Katie.”

“I know what I  _ want _ you to mean, but as intelligent as I may be with numbers, figures and the scientific method, I’m gonna need you to spell out the more...emotional side of things. It’s, ah, kind of...unchartered territory for me.” She admits, licking her lips nervously as Hunk’s eyes darken  _ (which...what?). _

“I’m saying that I have a- what did you say exactly? ‘Embarrassingly massive crush?’” Hunk teases with a wide smirk, and Pidge playfully punches her shoulder with another roll of her eyes. 

“Yes, you asshole.”

“Yeah, well, I have one of those on you too, you dork,” Hunk shrugs like it’s easy, like it doesn’t take Pidge’s breath away or make Pidge poke her face to make sure she’s real. Hunk tilts her head, amusement shining in her eyes as Pidge pinches her cheeks. “What in the world are you doing?”

Pidge pulls her hand back sheepishly. “I wanted to make sure you were real.”  _ (Wow, _ does she hate this truth gas effect.)

Hunk laughs brightly, and maybe,  _ maybe _ the truth gas isn’t all that bad if her unfiltered honesty is rewarded with peals of delighted laughter like  _ that. _ When Hunk settles down, she cups Pidge’s cheeks in her huge (warm,  _ perfect) _ hands, tipping her head closer as she looks Pidge right in the eyes, asking, “is this okay?”

Pidge doesn’t need the truth gas to speak of her desire as she breathes,  _ “please.” _

As Hunk’s lips meet hers in a kiss that obliterates almost all coherent thought, one thought filters through: that she’s thankful for unforeseen chemical effects.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! <3
> 
> Next up: f!Shance, "Romance Under Cherry Blossoms"


End file.
